StarCraft facts for kids

StarCraft is a very popular real-time strategy game for computers. It was made in 1998 by Blizzard Entertainment. Even though it's an older game, many people still play it today. It is especially popular in countries like Korea and the United States.

StarCraft and its expansion pack, StarCraft: Brood War, sold over 1.5 million copies in 1998. This made it the best-selling game of that year. In 1998, StarCraft also won an award called the Origins Award for best computer game.

On May 19, 2007, Blizzard announced they were making StarCraft II. They even worked with professional StarCraft players from South Korea to help create the new game.

What's the Story?

The story of StarCraft happens in the future. Humans, called Terrans, get caught in a big war between two alien groups. These groups are the Zerg and the Protoss.

The Zerg look like scary monsters. They are all controlled by one very powerful Zerg called the Overmind. The Zerg travel through the universe and take over planets.

The Protoss have very advanced technology. They search for planets that the Zerg have invaded. When they find a Zerg planet, they destroy it. This stops the Zerg from spreading to other planets.

In the first part of the story, a human hero named Jim Raynor teams up with some Protoss allies. Together, they attack and defeat the Overmind. But in StarCraft: Brood War, Jim's former partner, Sarah Kerrigan, uses clever plans. She tricks the Terrans and Protoss into helping her. This allows her to take control of all the Zerg. She then becomes the strongest force in the galaxy.

How to Play StarCraft

In StarCraft, players can choose to play as one of three different groups: the Protoss, the Zerg, or the Terran. Each group has its own unique soldiers and buildings. You can play by yourself (single-player) or against other people (multiplayer).

In both types of games, you need to gather resources. You use these resources to build a base and create soldiers. Your goal is to attack the enemy and destroy all their buildings. When you do that, you win the game!

Game Modes

In single-player mode, there are two ways to play: Campaign mode and Custom mode.

• Campaign mode lets you play through a series of missions. These missions tell the story of StarCraft.
• Custom mode lets you choose everything. You pick which group you want to be, what map you play on, and which group you will fight against. The computer controls all your enemies in this mode.

Gathering Resources

During a game, you need workers to collect minerals and vespene gas.

• Minerals look like blue crystals on the ground.
• Vespene gas comes from a geyser that has green smoke. To collect vespene gas, you need to build a special refinery building on top of the geyser.

You use the minerals and vespene gas you collect to build structures and create units. Units are your soldiers that fight the enemy.

Buildings and Units

To create units, you must build special structures. These structures also provide "supply." If you don't have enough supply, you can't make more units. Each player can have up to 200 units. Once you reach 200 units, you can't make any more.

There are many different buildings you can construct. Most buildings are used to train units. Other buildings are for research. Research helps you upgrade your units, making them stronger. You can also build defensive structures to protect your base from enemy attacks.

Each group (Protoss, Zerg, Terran) has different types of units:

• The Protoss have powerful warriors and machines. They cost a lot of minerals and gas to build.
• The Zerg use many fast and cheap units. They try to overwhelm their enemies with numbers.
• The Terran units are a mix between Protoss and Zerg. They have strong units that can be powerful when used together.

No group in StarCraft is more powerful than another. Blizzard has released many small updates to the game. These updates help keep all the groups balanced, so the game is fair for everyone.

Winning Strategies

To win in StarCraft, you need to gather and use your resources wisely. You also need to use smart strategies. To become very skilled, players need to be good at two things: micromanagement and macromanagement.

• Macromanagement means collecting resources, building new bases, and making units.
• Micromanagement means moving your units carefully during a fight. It's about using their special abilities to protect each other and defeat the enemy.

Players who are better at micromanagement often win fights. This makes StarCraft different from many newer games. In newer games, the computer often handles much of the micromanagement for the player.

StarCraft in South Korea

StarCraft is incredibly popular in South Korea. About 4.5 million copies of the game were sold there. This is 40% of all the copies sold worldwide!

In Korea, there are many professional gamers and pro gaming teams. Their StarCraft games are even shown on TV and the internet. The game was sold in Korea by LG Soft. Even though the game was not translated into Korean at first, it was still very popular. This was fixed in 2005 with a new update to StarCraft.

Images for kids

• 

  Chris Metzen helped design StarCraft and created its fictional world.

• 

  The cover of The StarCraft Archive book.

See also

In Spanish: StarCraft (serie) para niños